


a sacred thing

by ZuluOscarEcho



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Michael's Hat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21657604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZuluOscarEcho/pseuds/ZuluOscarEcho
Summary: A little bit 5 people who touched Michael’s hat and the 1 person that was allowed, a little bit no one knows where Michael got the hat, a lot bit of fluff.
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 18
Kudos: 137





	a sacred thing

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this](https://monluna-dreamer.tumblr.com/post/188261318297/i-need-a-fic-where-everyone-knows-that-michaels) post.

Max picked the hat up off his desk and examined it, Michael’s eyes following him closely. “Where’d you get this thing anyway?”

  
“Just picked it up,” Michael said, all faked nonchalance. “Asked around the ranch but no one laid claim to it so it’s mine now.”

  
“Pretty nice hat to be left behind on a ranch,” Max remarked, raising a suspicious eyebrow.

  
Michael rolled his eyes. “Just ‘cause I didn’t pick it up from heroes-R-us like you did doesn’t mean I stole it.”

  
“That’s not what I meant,” Max said, frustrated that his and Michael’s relationship had devolved into Michael always thinking he was throwing barbs. “I thought someone might’ve bought it for you.” Max shrugged, putting the hat down to start Michael’s release paperwork so he didn’t notice how his brother stiffened in the cell. “I dunno, like Isobel maybe, like as a gift when you started working on the ranch.”

  
“Nah, Iz sticks to buying me practical things like tuxedos and bath salts.”

  
Max chuckled, sharing a commiserating look with his brother, “Tell me about it, last birthday she bought me an essential oil diffuser. No actual essential oils mind you.” Max rolled his eyes and turned back to the paperwork and Michael’s shoulders dropped but he didn’t take his eyes off the black hat on Max’s desk.

***

“Gimme my damn hat Iz!”

  
Michael was .2 seconds away from using his powers to knock his hat off his sister’s head. If it wasn’t for her human husband Noah, it’d be in his hands faster than she could fix her hat hair.

  
Isobel pouted as she took the black hat off and handed it back to him. “I was just trying it on,“ she huffed. "I’m thinking of trying out the cowboy look, it seems to work for you and Max.”

  
“Well try it with Max’s hat then,” Michael grumbled, putting his hat back on his head where it belongs.

  
"Why are you so damn protective of that hat, Michael? Sure it’s nice and all, I have no idea where you got it but it’s still just a hat.” Isobel stalked off with a toss of her hair and left Michael, and his hat, alone.

***

Michael winked at Maria and put actual money on the bar for his drink before he put his hat on and got ready to leave. He turned away from the bar and immediately bumped into Wyatt Long.

  
“Watch where you’re going, trailer trash,” Long slurred, glancing back at his buddy behind him with a grin. He reached out and flicked the brim of Michael’s hat, knocking it clean off his head and it landed on the ground, circling absently before landing flat.

  
Michael stared at it for a second before he sighed. “Come on man, not the hat.” He scooped his hat off the ground and placed it carefully on the bar before he turned back to Long swinging.

***

Maria plucked the hat from his head and placed it on her own. “It’s rude to wear a hat inside, you know.”

  
She ducked and weaved out of his grasp to the beat of a soft rock country song drifting from the jukebox. He settled back in his seat to wait out the return of his hat.

“It’s my emotional support cowboy hat, doesn’t that make it an exception?”

  
She laughed and took the hat off her head, pressing it against his chest. “It needs an identifying vest then.”

  
The next week when Michael comes in he drops his hat on the stool beside him and pulls a high visibility vest out of his pocket and drapes it over the hat. In permanent marker on the back it reads ESO - Emotional Support Object.

  
Maria shakes her head and laughs, pouring him a glass of whiskey. “On the house.”

***

“Nice hat Mikey, I always wondered where you got it from?”

  
Isobel rolled her eyes. “Don’t even bother Liz, he’ll never tell us where he got it from, every story is more ridiculous than the last.”

  
Michael glanced at Alex who was smiling softly over the rim of his glass. Michael smirked and slung an arm over Liz’s shoulder. “Won it in a game of pool from one of them hot military types,” he said with a shrug. “Pretty sure he wanted to sleep with me but I only have room in my heart for one man in fatigues.”

  
Isobel rolled her eyes again and sighed. “Come on Michael, I don’t understand why you won’t tell us where you got it. If you bought it, just tell us, if someone gave it to you I don’t see what the big deal is.”

  
“It’s a very big deal,” Michael said solemnly, taking a sip of his beer, “it’s my hat.”

***

Alex was dozing in the sun, the black hat over his face while Michael worked on cars in the shade of the wonky portico that served as a garage. It was still a novelty to them both that they could spend time together like this, just being, without danger imminent.

  
“You ever gonna give me back my hat?” Michael drawled, coming to stand over him.

  
Alex pulled the hat off his face to look at him with a raised eyebrow. “I bought it, doesn’t that technically make it my hat?”

  
“And who’s head’s it been on the past 7 years, sweetheart? Possession's nine tenths of the law.”

  
Alex smirked as he dropped the hat back over his eyes. “Looks better on me anyway, Cowboy.”

  
Michael’s mouth fell open. “You did not just!” he spluttered, looking around in bewilderment for witnesses to this blasphemy.

  
Alex’s laughter escaped after him as he rolled to the side clutching Michael’s hat to his chest. “Your face,” he wheezed. “You look so offended.”

  
“I am offended!” Michael cried indignantly, following Alex down onto the flat beach chair he was lying on. The chair creaked under their combined weight as Michael leant over Alex, who was still laughing uncontrollably.

  
As much as he adored his hat, mostly for the person who gave it to him, Michael would give it back to Alex in a heartbeat if it made him this happy.  
“Maybe we can timeshare it,” Michael suggested once Alex had settled.

  
Alex raised an eyebrow "You want to timeshare a hat? It’s not a condo in Florida, Michael.“

  
"Then give it back to me,” he whined.

  
“What happened to what’s mine is yours?” Alex asked before leaning up for a kiss that slowly got hotter and filthier until they’d forgotten about the hat, the sun, the car and everything else around them.


End file.
